Wiimote, PS Eye/Camera/Move, Kinect, Oculus VR. Gaming, at least the hardcore kind, is moving towards a trend that ditches controllers and screens for the instruments that we already have: our bodies. But while our eyes, ears, and hands are more less fooled and pulled into the illusion, the rest of our bodies aren’t so much. Until now, that is. Introducing KOR-FX, a gaming vest with a haptic feedback system. In short, it lets your upper torso feel almost everything you should be feeling if you were actually living inside the game. OK, it is “cheating” a bit. It isn’t exactly letting you feel everything but only what you would be hearing. Sounds a bit confusing? Think of it like surround, except that the audio is converted into directed haptic feedback that resonates inside your chest to effectively fool your brain that a bullet did pass you by, for example.
Devices like the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus have been designed to take the gaming experience to the next level, but if you’d rather feel than see, then perhaps the KOR-FX haptic vest might be of interest to you. Haptic feedback gaming is definitely not new and we’ve seen it in the likes of steering controls and gaming seats. However what makes KOR-FX different is that it is a vest that gamers can wear, allowing them to feel the vibrations from the game on their body. The device was actually announced earlier this year but has since become a Kickstarter project where the device has managed to raise more than $140,000, which is almost double that of its original goal. The project is expected to end in the next week or so, so if you’d like to get your pre-orders in and pledge your support, you will be able to do so via its Kickstarter page. Now for those who aren’t sure what we’re talking about, the KOR-FX is a haptic vest like we mentioned above. Thanks to the built in vibrations, gamers will be able to sense all sorts of events in the game, like when vehicles are approaching, the direction from which a sniper is shooting from, and so on. This is thanks to acousto-haptic technology and transducers that allow for more directed and precise haptic output. The vest itself will be compatible with PCs, Macs, consoles, and even mobile devices like tablets, connecting to them via the 3.5mm audio jack. It’s definitely an interesting project and if you’d like to learn more, check out the video above or pop on over to their Kickstarter page for the details.
